Undaunted by public outrage stirred up by the furtive Capleton concert earlier this month, the Ocean Grove Lodge in Trinidad has booked another dancehall performer whose lyrics explicitly call for the murder and brutalization of gays.
This time, in a concert scheduled for Election Day, the performer is Beenie Man, a Jamaican dancehall icon with a history of making reluctant, passive-aggresive quasi-apologies to international consumers, only to backpedal and backslide when he’s in hotbeds of homophobia such as Jamaica and Uganda.
As with the Capleton concert, next week’s Beenie Man show was arranged by local promoter Beau DeVito of Bonus Man Entertainment.
Local gay rights activist group Queer Humboldt is planning a “peaceful, loving protest” to be held outside the Ocean Grove Lodge on the night of the concert.
According to that group’s co-founder, Todd Larsen, Trinidad City Council members Julie Fulkerson and Mike Morgan spoke to Ocean Grove Lodge owner Ron Fleshman yesterday, expressing their concerns about the event.
“He listened but basically said Beenie Man has said he won’t play those songs in the U.S.,” Larsen said. “I’m like, ‘Well, what about the rest of the countries and all the money he makes on Amazon?'”
A call to Ocean Grove Lodge Monday morning was not immediately returned.
P.S. (Capleton update): Some local Capleton apologists were annoyed by the protests, which helped convince the owner of Eureka’s Red Fox Tavern, the concert’s originally scheduled venue, to cancel the show. These folks claimed that Capleton has grown out of his homophobic youth and no longer performs hateful songs.
According to firsthand reports, Capleton did indeed lay off the homophobic material while performing here in Humboldt County. But nine days later, performing back in his native Jamaica, Capleton reportedly performed one of his signature hits, “Slew Dem,” which calls for the burning and death of gay men.
UPDATE 3:20 p.m.: Fulkerson said that she and Morgan were not representing the city when they visited with Fleshman yesterday. She described the encounter as “a fairly friendly conversation, given the situation.” She said Fleshman pointed to Beenie Man’s 2007 signing of the Reggae Compasionate Act, which he has since violated repeatedly, and tried to justify dancehall’s rampant homophobia by saying, “Well, it’s cultural.”
“Mostly I just wanted to have a conversation with him,” Fulkerson said. “I think it’s important to have that.”
This article appears in ‘Don’t Bother Coming In’.
Some people up here hate fags, I’m one of them and I’m totally supportive of him coming.
Keep looking for that light, LS. Looks like you missed a couple spots.
Well, why don’t you and the cock-loving rimjobbing men leave this county. Terrance we can protest any thing just as you can, whenever, however, with the sanctuary of God behind us. It’s the queers that will burn for eternity when the time comes. Have fun, I know I will.
That isn’t very nice, anonymous-blog-commenting-person.
Oh jeeze?!? You want a Kleenex Terrence?
Thank you, Ryan Burns, for covering “Beenie Man” with honesty.
In 2009, Beenie Man sang a song in Uganda calling for cutting the throats of all gay men. In Uganda, this is not an unusual attitude… at the time, the country was considering the death penalty for consensual gay sex. It’s hard for Americans to believe, given that American attitudes towards gay people have changes so much over the past thirty to forty years.
Beenie Man recently recorded a lame “youtube style” video that some chose to interpret as an “apology,” but he’s since been quoted extensively in Jamaica as denying he’d apologized to anyone. Jamaica is an astonishingly homophobic place, and dancehall music is both a driver and a recipient of that homophobia. An excellent summary is available here.
Ron Fleshman is, of course, within his rights to do business with Beenie Man, just as he would be within his rights to host a neo-Nazi group that called (but only in Germany) for cutting the throats of all Jews.
The rest of us are within our rights to think of Ron Fleshman as someone we would not want to conduct business with, and will, hopefully, advise others of Mr. Fleshman’s behavior. I hope everyone with any interest in this issue does exactly that, and I hope the outlets willing to sell tickets for this event do not sugar coat the behavior and attitudes of the “artiste.”
No culture in modern times should get a free pass for urging the murder of people minding their own business. It is a disastrous failure of the American education system that so many apparently intelligent young people think they should be “tolerant” of intolerant bigots.
Please do Rev write more about this cock-loving and rimjobbing, you truly have a gift for erotic prose! Ooh, you’re getting my glitter encrusted chastity belt all tight! Teach me your ways!
(Most people call this Sanctuary you speak of as “The Closet.” Escape before you get caught up in a scandal…)
‘Choir Boy’-See you can’t even toss out a decent reply to the topic, go flutter off now and begone.
Is the Westboro Baptist Church trolling the Journal blog now?
Damn, if only they understood Terrence’s comments (and by “they” I mean the one anonymous moron who posts under so colorful names like “Light Seeker” and “The Rev”).
Oh, it’s one guy. That makes sense.
Jesus is giving you a final chance for forgivness, soon there will be Destruction and Hell Fire for all the sinners.
Ocean Grove is doing God’s Work.
For more information about Beenie Man check out http://bit.ly/Lvjw3t
Heard last night in Od Town some LGBT are planning to charge the up coming show in the nude, and stop the show from happening.
Lettum play, we don’t want queers ruining the show, Beenie Man is an amazing artist.
Well, at least no one’s trying to hide their bigotry anymore by claiming “he hasn’t done it here” or “it’s a cultural thing.” Except for the bar’s owner, Fleshman, but he doesn’t strike me as the sharpest tool in the shed.
(CHOOSE YOUR PERFORMERS WISELY)– Why don’t you think about what you said, to me you are just as bigoted and a devilish attitude that says enemy. Jah Love, Man&Woman.
Soooooo cool Beenie Man is the sht! I’m stoked that he’s going to jam at Ocean Grove, we need a rockin Reggae place in Northern Humboldt.
Bigoted against bigots, eh? There’s a new one. I suppose those troublemakers who voted for the Civil Rights Act were bigots too?
Reggae without queenies! I’m for that, keep those fruities out an we groove to Jah!
“Bigoted against bigots, eh?”
Yin and Yang? It’s all the same don’t be angry bro, you just praise Jah, no hate, we can love anything, so go have you own Reggae shows, ours is Beenie!
The LGBT will probably do what last time when there were like six people protesting HAHAHA!
There were actually over two dozen, KC. Were you there as well? You should have introduced yourself. We just got four drunk guys and a van that careened toward the crowd.
Anyway, as far as numbers go, it was a decent turnout considering it was National Coming Out Day and there were two other pride events happening simultaneously. I don’t see any conflicts for Tuesday. The polls will be well closed. You should introduce yourself. We’ll have some HAHAHAHA laughs together.
Get off the drugs, dude. Really. They’re not doing you any good.And Rev, I’m sure the sanctuary of God is behind you, because it certainly isn’t ahead of you.
Beenie Man did apologize.Some say he denies it but I see no evidence of that. The video statement is pretty clear ,hard to deny it. Yes Ja. is very homophobic, some have accused Beenie Man of being gay over the years. Beenie man is a good person.He gives tons to needy youths in ja. and has bought tons for schools, including buses and books.
@RasMikey: Click the hotlink on the word “backpedal” in the post above.
i read that and it still says he is not into singing that stuff and just wants to get on w life. My angle on this issue is that I agree with free speech ,even hate speech because its a human right to express your feelings.I think once we start to erode free speech laws it opens the door to censor creative expression in film n music and art. If you wanna make a horror movie for example , they could say you are promoting killing or what not and ban it. Do I agree that dancehall artist go to far w literal imagery about killing in there art? Yes and its ok to protest that. Its ok to protest anything.
Yes… singing about murdering gays is exactly like making a horror movie. That’s a wonderful analogy… from the most homophobic country on the planet where gays are under constant threat. And are being murdered.
Mr. BM (why do those unfortunate initials keep coming up) definitely recanted and failed to hold up his side of the Compassionate bargain.
The problem with hate speech – and why US law has determined that it be illegal – is because when charismatic folks, say, dancehall musicians or the leader of a white supremacist group, start uttering it, people get killed. And we’re against people dying.
Then again, Ras Mike wasn’t at the Capleton show, so he’ll probably avoid this one, too.
Bonus will keep pushing to maintain his status as a promoter, in fact all this pressure only gives him more family credit with the artists he is bringing here. I m not telling anyone what to do- boycott, protest, support the show or not…but- censorship is a slippery slope.
Many Many Corporations, and Companies- much bigger than Ocean Grove should as well be targeted for boycott- that is unless the local LGBT community only wants to target small and local businesses….
Companies such as
EXXON
Chick Filet
URBAN OUTFITTERS
Walmart
Salvation Army
and
Quicksilver- To Name a few…
Don’t even get me started on who the heck is funding hateful agendas in politics- it will never end- and in that endless never ending we will have nothing to buy, eat, drive, or be entertained by- at least not anything that costs money.
The corruption of humanity cannot be stopped with band-aids- we must reeducate and teach tolerance and help people to understand our likenesses and differences.
in my opinion.
That must be murder music apologist Chrystal Ortiz writing under a pseudonym. Her favorite debate tactic is…. “Hey, look at that over there!”
Someone’s with the wrong family.
Anyway, unlike the marshmallow giant in Ghostbusters, Beau DeVito and the Ocean Grove do not get larger and more powerful when attacked.
OG owner Ron Fleshman has stated that he’s just a businessman and he’ll end up getting a business lesson. Fewer patrons = less profit.
No Terrence you are wrong about who i am,
and you are a great troll and bully.
It is becoming your M.O. on facebook and now here on NCJ.
Never the less i live in this community as well and have a valid opinion, about the story, just like you and everyone else on this thread.
No matter if we agree or not. it is what it is.. and now,back to you- “King of one ups and last word” take it away Terrence—>
Terrence is a troll? Does he go by some clever name … something like “be-the-change”?
And I suppose that he is something of a bully, if you define a bully as someone who is willing to take a public stand against bigotry.
Who are the Oakland men coming up to act as security people? I bet there nothing but gangbangers with a legal ‘beat the crap’ attitude toward the protest if we gave one.
Da T Bone, Bato Ehlan, Bato Ehlan, Choir Boy, Heavenly Jah, Light Seeker etc. You are all a waste of space. I haven’t even heard the music and don’t want to go. Yuck! The thought that I may actually have to rub elbows with your excessive hatred is repulsive. It is the Ocean Grove that is loosing with your hate. You push too many people away suggesting violence at a music event. Idiots.
And some people wonder why Oakland has become such a crime-ridden mess.
Who gives a shit about this non-issue. I’m only curious to see what’s in Todd Larsen, Terrence McNally, Ryan Burns etc. music collections. We can then take turns identifying who the selectively righteous hypocrites are as well as the bigots. Drink your poison, shaddap and get your groove on if you’re feeling it. Less anti, more pro…that’s supposed to be the new mainstream, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fbHOAbOcNI
“Who gives a shit about this non-issue.”
Obviously,you do.
Will trade crack 4 ounces buds
I be early too.
Will trade crack 4 ounces buds
I be early too.
I definitely have DU in my library and they put on a good show at ATL, what, was it eight years ago now. My favorite thing about their music is that they never sing about murdering minorities. A lot of us are very pro-music-that-doesn’t-encourage-killing-minorities.
And even though he performs as Humpty Hump, everyone knows it’s Greg Jacobs as he has the cojones to put his name on his writing and the liner notes.
But what I think is amazing is that every time one of these posters threatens to stab a gay person or slurs homosexuals… it’s crickets from the soldiers of positivity and Jah Love here and elsewhere. It’s extremely rare for a murder music defender to write anything akin to: “Hey, we’re debating music here, not threatening violence or calling folks names. Let’s keep it civil.” Crickets.
OAKCRIPSLIVE550
!! Beenie Man Reggae Jah Love 4 Blacks!!
Oh you “Men” always trigger happy to beat us up, well I going to have a Reggae Love Fest right out side, so fa lt tah biggots. We can have a show too! Need Anti-Anti-Gay biggots.
Here’s my song biggots, it’s Captain&
Love, love will keep us together Think of me, babe, whenever Some sweet talkin’ girl comes along Singin’ his song, don’t mess around You just got to be strong
Just stop, ’cause I really love you Stop, I’ll be thinking of you Look in my heart And let love keep us together
You, you belong to me now Ain’t gonna set you free now When those girls start Hanging around, talking me down Hear with your heart and you won’t hear a sound
Just stop, ’cause I really love you Stop, I’ll be thinkin’ of you Look in my heart And let love keep us together, whatever
Young and beautiful Someday your looks will be gone When the others turn you off Who’ll be turnin’ you on I will, I will, I will
I will, be there to share forever Love will keep us together I said it before and I’ll say it again While others pretend I need you now and I need you then
This whole thing sucks! Its tearing the community apart. Why are people fighting when the world is already so messed up???? Bonus Productions obviously has no problem promoting the music of artists who promote gay bashing..that is clear. Best thing to do is boycott his shows by not going to them…the karma will come around….As it always does..as the laws of nature command! Between him and his violent psycho girlfriend Im sure the karma will come back around~…..wow what a dark and ugly force, let them get on with it……
I still think we can get through this without getting overly personal, LOZ.
Unfortunately the laws of misguided humans often supercede natural laws. And almost all Americans misconstrue what the word “karma” really means.
Crack Cheap at nov6 Beenie Man show in hombolt
Well has anyone noticed that the NCJ has an advertisement for the show in the current issue?
Hilarious. Their hypocrisy is stunning.
Lest anyone doubt me, the Beenie man ad is on page 27.
Great, now we have a bunch of gansters coming to the show, they’ll keep the police busy no doubt, especially with the election.
Don’t be bigoted against gangsters, Herb. Their violent approach to life is just a cultural thing that should be tolerated, right?
Sorry to disappoint you, Red Sox, but I’ll have to decline your offer. I’m flattered in a way, but I think my wife would object to you fulfilling your repressed fantasy with me. Good luck getting that secret desire taken care of someday, though.
“…the NCJ has an advertisement for the show in the current issue…”
Yes, somehow it’s horrible that the NCJ accepts advertising from all sorts of people, and that their editorial department is not a branch sales department.
This is actually a serious question and not intended as a bait: Since a lot of us obviously have a poor understanding of the culture, is Rastafarianism actually a movement of peace as several commenters here and elsewhere have offered? Because the threats of violence against peaceful protesters doesn’t seem to jibe with that assertion. And as a follow up, if that is, in fact, the case, are members of that community prepared to stop a potential physical confrontation at the Ocean Grove Tuesday night. Last night on the Plaza got a bit out of hand and it would be good to know if all sides of this conversation were on the same page.
“Yes, somehow it’s horrible that the NCJ accepts advertising from all sorts of people, and that their editorial department is not a branch sales department.”
Sorry Joel, but the NCJ has drawn a line in the sand numerous times about this so called murder music. This is hypocrisy at its finest.
If you are going to spare your outrage towards the journal, then you should likewise spare the local taverns that are holding the events; likewise, if the LGBT community is going to boycott these establishments, they should also boycott the NCJ for promoting the event.
Consistency, Joel…it’s a good thing.
So nobody is going to answer that question? Just another anonymous threat.
OK, that’s been established, Brian. Rather than getting into that: are you also against violence?
Shut up about he ads man! The NCJ needs the ads to pay Joel and other people! After all, nobody knows hate like Joel, week after week it puts it in the NCJ.
I invite 10:08 to boycott whomever she pleases, and yes, 8:14, it does take money to pay a staff. Thanks for shedding light on a complex subject.
Confidential to the cowardly, hate-mongering ignoramus who goes by “Brian Carpenter,” “ak47,” “JoJo,” “Latoya,” “Willy,” “Jah Lovin” and “Coach”: Your comments are gone and you’ve lost commenting privileges. Scat, now.
Why do I get the feeling that most of the anti-gay posts here are the product of one feeble mind using a variety of names?
@Choose: You nailed it.
Finally. The Society for Normalcy in Music (SNM) agrees with the NCJ and left. We need more censorship in our culture, particularly in music. For years various musicians have been attacking various authority figures (Republicans, Christians, police) and have not been criticized by the left. Now the glove is on the other hand. We call on the NCJ to announce its formal boycott all offensive music. Surely the NCJ knows that many of its staff are already members of our organization.
The SNM formed years ago when a country-western singer incited violence in one of his songs while preforming in Reno. The perp said the act was done just to watch the victim die.
Join us and together we will make sure that no offensive music EVER plays in Humboldt again. Remember our motto, “If it can’t be clean, than it can’t be seen!”
If the NCJ is going to take such a big stance, I agree that it is hypocritical to accept paid advertising from the company they’re taking a stance against. I am in no way condoning hate speech, and I am not a fan of Bonus Entertainment (and from here forward will not be going to any of his shows), but I am a bit disappointed at NCJ staff for not truly reporting on this issue in a more thorough, journalistic way.
Obviously, NCJ isn’t the NY Times or some other paper that strives for the almighty objective approach, but a local community paper that often does a great job of relating community stories and issues. However, I do think this issue could be addressed in a better way that is more than just soap box op-ed.
I think some of the responses by NCJ staff on this thread are not helpful, either. Rather than attempting to have a thoughtful, educational or constructive approach, it has degenerated into a mud-throwing contest and at times childish attacks that contribute nothing to the discussion. Maybe hold your tongues/typing fingers when you have the urge to sling mud and take the high road? Fight back by doing the issue justice and report a worthwhile story that rises above the lame trolling and reactionary ugliness (and sensationalism that in the end helps Beau DeVito publicize) that has reared their ugly heads on this blog.
Just a suggestion from a regular reader.
Look, Joel, with a headline “Freedom to Boycott”, it was pretty clear what the staff of NCJ thinks of Capleton and other so-called murder music artists. In addition, you and others have made comments in this and other threads suggesting people refuse to spend their money on it. Which you have a right to do, and quite frankly, I agree.
However, less than a month later you run an ad for another dancehall artist accused of similar hate speech. Which, obviously, you also have the right to do. However, you undermine the stand you took previously if you turn around and take money from said “murder music” promoters.
I am not criticizing the NCJ for not being a fully objective news source. I believe there is really no such thing, and more news outlets would do themselves and the public in general a great service if they owned up to that fact a bit more clearly. I AM criticizing your decision to run the ad. If you’re going to make such a big public stand against or for something, you need to back it up with action, which I feel you failed to do by accepting money to advertise a show you rail against. Was there any discussion amongst staff about that decision, or was it purely a business decision?
Disappointed — as a regular reader you know that this is far from the first NCJ piece on this subject.
I’d say that earlier pieces were more than fair to Capleton and Bonus Entertainment. They were given the opportunity to refute the accusations of calling for gays to be murdered, but they failed miserably. First they claimed that Capleton no longer held such views, then they claimed that it was a cultural thing, then they claimed that the NCJ was repressing their freedom of speech.
At this point the coverage is right to be opinionated. Do you think an NYT on music calling for blacks to be lynched would express no opinion whatsoever as to the morality of that position?
Since I can already sense the counter-argument on the way, I realize that not accepting ads from people you don’t agree with may be a slippery slope, and y’all have to pay the bills.
I’m not suggesting that you turn down revenue. What I’m trying to say is that the ad may not have been so glaring if the NCJ had gotten down from the soapbox and reported the story a bit more and refrained from engaging the bigotry seen on the blog. Principles are principles, and I think the Journal can afford to stick by theirs.
I have never suggested that the staff of NCJ shouldn’t express their opinions, far from it.
And as I said in my earlier post, I certainly do not expect any newspaper, even the NY Times, to be entirely objective. Any writer or editor is fooling themselves if they believe it’s possible.
What I am saying is that the response by NCJ staff on this blog really takes away from the message and their opinions. Saying that commenters are feeble minded and the like (no matter how inane and ridiculous and bigoted some of the comments have been) is not professional and does not further your message.
Might I suggest checking out Kym Kemp’s responses to her readers on Lost Coast Outpost? Respectful, yet takes no b.s., and aims to inform and educate. No mud slinging.
Arguably they were just confirming my theory that it was one person making said comments, not my opinion that that person is a drooling idiot.
I agree with you that Kym Kemp is very respectful at the LoCo. But I’m more in the “respect should be earned, not expected” camp. Not every classless bozo who puts a comment up should receive it.
In order to clear future confusion, please provide us a list of all proposed banned artists. I propose you not only focus on those artist against the LGBT community, but all groups that have been targeted (not only by dancehall artists)! Thanks for the clarification.
10:29 conflates criticism and censorship, while 10:07 objects that the NCJ’s lack of advertising censorship is somehow hypocritical. Tough crowd.
And to “Big Brother,” above, if you know of other artists who advocate the murder of any other entire class of people, by all means, please share, otherwise, save your pointless sarcasm for a special occasion.
Does NCJ support censoring artists? Supposedly Beenie Man apologized for the song. Should we be able to forgive someone for their misdirected youth? This is a slippery slope and i’m surprised that NCJ seems support a ban on musicians with offensive lyrics.
Again call on NCJ for their list of offensive artists. Please make sure your list includes all bands that invoked violence on others. Funny, Joel mentions pointless sarcasm. Isn’t that his role as a cartoonists NCJ and on all the blogs?
No, “Big Brother,” pointless sarcasm is not my “role on all the blogs.” My sarcasm always has a point. The gist of your sarcasm (11:19) seems to be, “if the NCJ wants to complain about an artist who encourages violence against gay people, what’s next?” Indeed, what would be beyond the pale for you, Big Brother?
Where would i draw the line? That is a good question and one that is difficult to answer. I do not support a boycott of the venues because they have an artist(s) that has said offense material. Who decides what is offensive enough or if an artist is really sorry? I admit i haven’t read all the offensive lyrics by every dancehall artist, but i can imagine. Obviously, lyrics about violence against gays is wrong, as it is against anyone. Supposedly Beenie Man apologized, but denied it after another dancehall artist called him out. To my knowledge most of the antigay lyrics were written years ago when these guys were teenagers. So is he sorry or not? I don’t know, and i would suggest you dont know either.
Who’s next? Are people going to protest against anti-gay violence or violence against all people? Believe me i don’t listen to this music and could careless if he played, but have more of a concern for creeping censorship. I would think most journalists would understand this argument.
Thanks for your response, Big Brother. And one thing we agree on is that the clown(s) posting as Steve Johnston and Blackcrip are idiots.
Why have my previous comments been removed? I believe i have been respectful. Please repost if possible. Not sure how or why you would remove my comment.
I feel your pain, Big Brother, I’ve had two comments removed on this thread. The editor told me, …”we’re in spam hell here and some things are getting lost as we try to deal with it.”
I would not mistake your comments for spam..
In 2009, Beenie Man sang a song in Uganda calling for cutting the throats of all gay men. In Uganda, this is not an unusual attitude… at the time, the country was considering the death penalty for consensual gay sex. It’s hard for Americans to believe, given that American attitudes towards gay people have changes so much over the past thirty to forty years.
I think concern about creeping censorship is important; I also feel its important to speak out against people who call for the deaths of groups.
If a singer had gone to Iran in 2009 and sung a song calling for hanging all Jews, would you feel comfortable that the Ocean Grove was doing business with that singer?
If a singer had gone to Mississippi in 2009 and sung a song calling for hanging all blacks, would you feel comfortable that the Ocean Grove was doing business with that singer?
Would you feel comfortable doing future business with the Ocean Grove in either of those two cases?
It is not censorship to speak out against people who call for the deaths of people simply for their membership in a group. In Jamaica, homophobia is deadly, and these musicians are pushing it forward. There are regular reports of people being attacked, maimed, and murdered for being thought to be gay. Again, it’s hard to believe unless you’ve been paying attention.
A good article is here.
Uganda has enshrined homophobia in law. It’s perhaps the worst country in the world for gays. There’s no way that Beenie Man wouldn’t have known that his call to action could get people hurt or killed.
Beenie Man is a scumbag.
@Da Censorz: Beenie Man says some admirable things in that video, but it’s not an apology. He said so himself. He starts the video by complaining that “people [are] still creating problem for me to work.” He later explained what he meant this way: “I said that they (the gays) should leave us alone, don’t have us up for what we said when were young, that happened 20 years ago.”
This has led many people to suspect that his statement was less than sincere.
Okay Ryan i admit he didn’t say he’s sorry for his lyrics, but it was an implicit apology. Maybe he meant it and maybe he didn’t. We don’t really know. I think it would be safe to judge his actions since then. I imagine Beenie Man’s upbringing in Jamaica was very different from yours. Perhaps it took him 20 years to realize his error? So are you and NCJ endorsing a boycott based on an assumption?
Da Censorz,
Let me turn the question around to you.
If there were a performer who’d been performing KKK songs in Mississippi that called for the hanging of all black people,
and they went to Alabama to repeat the call in 2009,
and then in 2012 they recorded a video saying they hadn’t called for black people to be murdered for 20 years, they loved everyone, and why were black people bothering him,
but then shortly afterward denied he’d been apologizing to blacks for his performances in Mississippi and Alabama,
and now he was showing up at the Ocean Grove,
would you feel enough time had passed, his non-apology should be accepted, and he should be allowed to perform with no comments from anyone?
Would you feel his upbringing in the Deep South, where his grandpappy had happily raised him to hate black people and helped him write his early hits “Hang that N***r” and “Blammo, Buh-bye!”, was reason to excuse his current behavior or his behavior in 2009? It’s a different culture in backwoods Mississippi — they learned differently.
Do you think the performer’s statement that the songs were from his foolish youth, ignoring completely that he’d sung them in Alabama in 2009, would carry enough weight that you’d accept the apology he later denied giving?
I am not defending what he did in the past or that he is a good person. Clearly he apologized, but apparently some don’t believe it. Regardless of the reason why he apologized, he said that he wont write new anti gay lyrics or preform the old ones.
I’m from the south and have seen violent racism directly. Race and sexual identities are different issues, but i understand point. I have known racists that grow to realize their wrong and legitimately sorry for their ways. It’s really not worth arguing if he meant his apology or not. You think he didn’t, i don’t know and i’m sure some people think he did.
What’s more important to me and other civil libertarians is censorship. Admittedly, some on the left don’t like the ACLU protecting the KKK’s right to freedom of speech. Boycotting and protesting a business based on an artist they host is clearly your right, but some of us think it’s going to far. Some think it is unnecessarily causing strife in our community.
I’d venture to say that there is less homophobia in the local reggae community than there is in other scenes, despite some of the dim-witted comments above. Has there ever been any violence in Hunmboldt, CA or the entire US based on dancehall reggae? I'[m just curious…. Again, this is not endorsement of violent lyrics.
“Clearly he apologized.”
Clearly he did not.
Thanks for being open to civil discussion, Da Censorz.
As for dividing the community, that’s an argument that is always used when anyone does much of anything; to complain that something is divisive is to say that the status quo is better than any change. This need not be a divisive issue if people come to the conclusion that a singer who has called, as recently as 2009, for hanging all gays should not be welcomed.
I suspect that had Beenie Man been calling for hanging all blacks, or all Jews, or all Chinese this would not be a divisive issue — people would see it more clearly.
I’m glad to hear that the local reggae scene is not particularly homophobic, and I don’t doubt that statement at all. But this issue is really about more than local gay people and local reggae music listeners.
Did you read the article I linked, from Guernica? Jamaica is a dangerous place for anyone perceived to be LGBT, and people are legitimately terrified. This music is a contributor. This musician has been a contributor, as recently as 2009.
There’s an LGBT group in Jamaica that must be made up of some of the bravest souls on the planet. If someone like Beenie Man seriously wanted to make amends for the damage he has caused, he could turn over a large part of his concert profits to that group, known as J-FLAG.
I’m sure J-FLAG could put it to use to pay for hospitalization of reggae fans who are gaybashed in that country. They are reachable through the web at j-flag.org — their office location has to be kept secret — how sad is that.
Words are easy. For Beenie Man to actually meet some of the people his music has injured, and to help them out financially would (whether sincere or not) at least be useful. Jamaica needs to start seeing LGBT people as people, and a gesture like that would go a long way.
I’ll add one last comment about censorship.
It’s censorship when the government refuses to allow a group to march, because their views are unpopular. It would be censorship if the government were shutting down the Ocean Grove tomorrow.
Publicizing the behavior of an artist, in the hope and expectation that people will not want to be associated with the artists activities or do business with them is not censorship. It’s free speech.
A club owner is free to decide that he or she does not want to do business with someone who sings about the joy of killing black people. That’s not censorship either.
If a local business took to hanging signs in its window saying “HANG ALL BLACKS,” it would not be censorship to avoid it — it would be good citizenship.
Mitch, I have agreed with you multiple times that promoting violence against any minorities (including homosexuals) is bad. For some reason, you keep going back to race and building strawman arguments. Race and sexual orientation are two different issues. No one will have a problem picking out the racial minority in a row of white people. You can not tell someones sexual preference by looking at them. Homosexuals have had a rough history in this country, but they have never faced the issues like African Americans have or the Jewish holocaust. I don’t really want to go into all the differences, but i’m sure you can figure them out.
Anyway, i feel like we are beating a dead horse here. I do not support censorship (even vile lyrics) and you (possibly NCJ) do. This is an issue that Jamaica has a problem with and not Humboldt, CA or the US. People that are going to this show want to dance and have fun, not resort to violence against gays. Most people don’t even know what they are saying. Even reading the lyrics doesn’t provide much help because it is in written in Patois.
To my knowledge there has never been an issue in America with dancehall related violence on gays, but I fear that there could be issues at the next event by protesters provoking concert attendees. Thankfully i won’t be there to support either.
Da Censorz,
If I understand your comment then like many people, you do not see the parallels between race, religion, and sexual orientation, on the grounds that you can hide your sexual orientation.
From the Guernica article:
A few months ago, in a parking lot adjacent to a posh Kingston shopping district called the Sovereign Center, N and another man kissed their two stylish women companions on the cheeks and turned to open their car doors. The four office colleagues had just enjoyed an after-work dinner at an upscale restaurant. Over his shoulder, N heard a man’s voice: “You all are battymen.”
“I wasn’t sure who they were talking about so I turned around,“ recounted N. “Someone stabbed me with some sort of instrument in my eye, then punched me in the face.” For N, the next ten or so minutes became a blur. Witnesses told police that fourteen assailants—including the owner of the restaurant they had just exited—punched, kicked, and body-slammed the two men over and over again.
Despite three operations, N lost all sight in his left eye. He refused to leave his apartment for two months. After the attack, the friend who was also beaten filed a police report against their assailants, listing his home address. Two weeks later, he was shot outside his front gate.
Yes. That’s awful. I’ve actually read the article a couple times since it is your primary source. The struggle for civil rights is similar between “race, religion, and sexual orientation”, however they are far separate issues. One does not wear their sexual orientation and by saying that does not mean they are “in the closet”.
Thank you, Da Censorz. In a few years of posting these things off and on, I think you may be the first blog commenter who’s ever acknowledged actually reading that piece — I’m grateful.
I think the “censorship” concerns depend a lot on your point of view. Personally, I don’t care what music people listen to.
What I care about is that members of a society make a clear statement that violence against people is unacceptable, and that violence against people simply because of their membership in any group is doubly unacceptable.
To remain silent in the face of someone who has made money, recently, by singing that others should be hung seems to me to be a sort of complicity in their opinion — or excusing it on the grounds that it’s “just their culture.”
If Beenie Man wants to sing on any street corner in America, he has the legal right to do that. If he wants to sing on any stage in America, he has the legal right to do that. So I don’t think this is about censorship. It’s about the fact that violent homophobia should not be a path that will lead you to fame and fortune.
Sure, some people will go to the concert and some of them will not be anti-gay. I accept that; I hope they enjoy themselves. But I’d like as many people as possible to know Beenie Man’s history, so that everyone can at least make an INFORMED decision about whether they really want to fund his performances.
Death to all faggots in Humboldt!
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